I recently pulled the trigger on a new MacBook. Not wanting to regret the purchasing decision, I went for the top of the line white MacBook, which includes the SuperDrive that lets me write to DVD. What follows is the out-of-box experience in the first 15 minutes of owning a new MacBook.

If you’ve never purchased an Apple product, then you’re missing out on a great experience in the unboxing. I’m not one for unboxing photos, but I can tell you the packaging is thinner than any laptop I’ve purchased, and all of the gear is perfectly placed in its own compartments.

As for the MacBook, I unwrapped it, plugged one end of the charger into the MacBook, and then the other into the wall. The end that was plugged into the MacBook immediately lit yellow, which means it’s charging–it goes green when it’s fully charged. Then I pressed the power button. Immediately, it booted up and within literally seconds it had recognized that Wi-Fi access points were available. I selected the one I needed to use, entered in the appropriate WEP key, and the machine continued the boot process. Seconds later, it asked me to select the keyboard layout type and do a couple of other quick things (do I want a .mac account–if you say no, you can get 60 days free), set a password for the computer, and then it completed booting. As soon as it settled on the main welcome screen, it detected there were updates available. I chose to download and install them, and it performed this function in the background. I then opened up Safari and went to GetFirefox.com and downloaded and installed Firefox. A few minutes later, and the updates were downloaded, and I was asked to restart the MacBook.

If I were opening up a new PC with Vista installed, then I would probably just now have completed the registration process and be clicking my way through all of the trial copies of bloatware that ship with it–plus registering for the anti-virus software. Inevitably, one or more of them would have caused an error, and the forced updates of Vista potentially would have blue-screened my laptop. I’m actually talking from real world experience, since I have a Vista box that is waiting for me to allow 28 critical updates to proceed, since every time I let an update go I reboot and get welcomed by a bluescreen.

Now back to the MacBook. I was now about 10 minutes into the new MacBook experience. The reboot completed in less than a minute, and I was on my way to happy computing. I then clicked on the iChat app, typed in my AIM username and password, and saw my familiar buddylist pop up. I noticed a camera icon next to one buddy in particular and clicked on it.

This is a picture of how I appear on a buddylist (notice the camera icon)

Seconds later I was seeing a window inside a window with a small picture of me in the smaller window and my friend in the larger window. I was video chatting! Then a friend of mine–sitting with his MacBook Pro next to me on the couch–signed on to AIM. I saw him show up with the same camera icon and dragged him into the window. Moments later, we were doing a three-way video chat! Remember, this is less than 15 minutes after having opened up the MacBook for the first time! I didn’t have to do any firewall manipulation or special configuring; there were no anti-virus software installation or updates to worry about.

By the way, if you don’t have friends with webcams, you can still have fun with your own–see the picture below.

As I mentioned to a friend of mine, what I’m noticing about the MacBook is that it just works! I’ve never been an Apple Fanboy, but I definitely could be one now. I’ve always said that the technology has existed for years that allows for a “friendly” technology experience. What I mean is that you shouldn’t have to know the ins and outs of a computer to take advantage of the latest technology. In my test, less than 15 minutes after opening the MacBook, I was already surfing the ‘Net and doing a three-way video chat. How’s that for “friendly” technology?!

I’m now writing this article while sitting outside of a Panera. My MacBook’s screen has been on full brightness for almost three hours, and it’s now telling me I have about a half-hour left of battery life. This is the first time in my many years of owning a laptop where I haven’t been constantly checking the battery time, and I didn’t even bring a power adapter, figuring that when the power died, I’d go home.

So far, the Apple experience is worlds better than I had anticipated. I was originally thinking I’d install BootCamp, put Vista on a partition, and then run Parallels. Since using this machine, I haven’t had a need for any Windows-based products, so I’m in no hurry to do any Vista installing.

My next purchase is going to be a mini-DVI to DVI adapter, so I can try to use the MacBook as my MAIN machine for a week. I plan to detail the applications that I use on Windows and how I’ve found either built-in ones or third party ones on the Mac to allow me to perform my daily tasks. Stay tuned!

One more thing: I decided to run the battery down to see what the MacBook would do. This screenshot speaks for itself.

When I finally ran out of power, the MacBook shut down quietly and wouldn’t power back up, no matter how many times I pressed the power button. Later, when I connected it up to AC power, it started up exactly where I had left off–nice one, Jobs. :-)

Have you recently had your own Mac experience? If so, write about it below.

“I didnâ€™t have to do any firewall manipulation or special configuring; there were no anti-virus software installation…” So you are happy that you leave your computer wide open to the world? I understand people saying ‘but there is no viruses for the Macâ€™; well of course not, why waist your time to write one for that small of a population. And although I can not speak of Vista, I have loaded XP on countless laptops, and desktops with no issues.

hefferjd

Sound like an awsome machine. How well does it do in gaming both mac and pc games ? I would like to know before buying one. thx

asdfasdfasd

“If I were opening up a new PC with Vista installed, then I would probably just now have completed the registration process and be clicking my way through all of the trial copies of bloatware that ship with itâ€“plus registering for the anti-virus software.”

Blame this on using Vista, buying a computer from a organization that uses bloatware, and man a little time for safety never hurt anyone.

I agree with vision how do you like being wide open to the world, hope market share of OSX stay low or hackers rejoyce systems ready to invade at a wim.

the_real_mark

I think the major reason hackers write viruses for PC’s is that’s what all major corporations/governments use. Who want’s to attack Joe Schmoe’s personal computer (which Macs are great for, BTW)? Well, besides assholes, of course.

So I think Joel is probably fine with it.

datanick

My experiences – first of all I grew up in computing on Apple products and STILL prefer them. However, now that Apple computers are basically PCs (Intel motherboard,etc) I looked hard and long when I was able to purchase a new laptop. Since finances played a great deal, I exhaustively compared several vendors and ultimately purchased a Toshiba Satellite A135 for $629. I got a laptop with the same specs as the MacBook for $500 less. I also made sure the specs on this machine would allow me to dual boot OSX in the future if I choose to. Right now I have 4 partitions set up and am running Vista and Xandros Linux on 2 of them.
I couldn’t be happier (still have my G3 PISMO running OSX, and use it for music/video/Inet) and feel since Apple does not exclusively manufacture PCs like they use to in the old days, whatever makes economic sense works. Love the Crystal View screen as well.
No bashing here, just my own personal experience.

Nick
Systems Analyst

JoelGeek

I, too, have gone through a number of PCs in the past, and most recently had a core duo that i paid $500 for from toshiba.

My main point about up and running so fast was more about how much bloatware comes pre-installed on a new PC. I’ve recommended a new laptop to a few people lately and they have nothing but trouble clicking through all of the installs. In some cases they have had to call toshiba about some errors installing some bloatware. The toshiba rep then had them do a system restore, wiping out all of the configuration that i had done for them.

So far i have only a couple of complaints about my Mac experience, which I’ll be detailing more later in the week.

datanick

Joel,
I don’t deny that many PCs including Toshiba come pre-installed with “bloatware”. My experience was not that bad, I uninstalled the MS Office trial because I already owned Office XP, and I just let the Google desktop and MacAfee installs expire, otherwise, no fuss no muss!

And for the $500 in savings, unless money is no real object (and for most of us it is) I still stand by my decision that I would rather spend the $500 on other things than just giving it to Apple when I could get comparable hardware for that much cheaper.

And as far as the OS goes, I’m just as happy running Linux as I am running Vista or OSX on my Pismo G3.

To summarize, if you’ve got the money, fine the MacBook is great, but if you don’t, there are comparable options that are much cheaper, and I don’t believe that can be disputed nor do I believe that the PC install experience is worth an extra $500 to Apple.

Nick

JoelGeek

Nick,

The Vista startup experience is a nightmare for newbies. Two friends had a similar experience where they had to call Toshiba tech support, then Linksys tech support, then the company that gave them the free anti-virus software with the purchase of the new machine. Also, most consumers will buy based on the latest deal they see in the Sunday paper. That deal is almost never $500 for a core 2 duo machine.

I’m not saying that everyone should buy a Mac, I’m just saying that so far my experience has been much simpler with the Mac then it has been with the many other Windows-based laptops I’ve owned.

datanick

Joel,
As we’re having this friendly back and forth, let me clarify: I stated in my original post that I paid $629 for the laptop, not $500. The savings was $500 difference between a MacBook and the Toshiba, and yes my machine is an Intel Core Duo (I made sure because I’m going to at some point install OSX on it).

I don’t deny that some people have bad experiences with configuring a new computer. I just don’t believe that there’s $500 worth of differences in set up between a Mac and a WinTel, that’s all.

All I did was take the thing out of the box, start it up and follow the prompts, everything was pretty intuitive.

“‘m just saying that so far my experience has been much simpler with the Mac then it has been with the many other Windows-based laptops I’ve owned.”

I think that used to be more accurate say 7-10 years ago, but not so much now.

Nick

the_real_mark

Nick,
Out of the box, Macs are ready to go. They’ve kept true to this from day one, and it’s still true today. If anything goes wrong with it (up to a year, or specified contract date), you take it to the Apple store and they fix it (this is a more recent development). Simple. For a lot of people this peace of mind is more than worth the extra $500.

It’s personal experience Joel is talking about, not ‘fact based on opinion.’ I would have to agree with him, even today.

JoelGeek

The other thing is what the Mac comes loaded with. I don’t have to uninstall a trial version of this or that. It comes with iDVD, iPhoto, and a number of others.

I’m about to attempt to go completely Mac for my everyday tasks for the rest of the week. When I do I will detail what software I’m using on the Mac and what I used to use on a Vista box to do the same tasks–it should be pretty interesting.

The other nice thing was the video conferencing. Sure I could buy a webcam, install it (find the right drivers) and then get it working with either netmeeting or something else, but in my case all I did was fire up ichat and then I saw a camera icon, clicked it and I was video conferencing. :-)

Before my macbook experience I was always recommending the PC. Now that Vista comes with it with all of the bloatware and after hearing my newbie friends have terrible experiences getting up and running, my recommendation is leaning more towards the Mac, especially since most people don’t burn DVDs so you can get a decent core 2 duo MacBook for $1099.

datanick

the_real_mark & Joel,

Both of you guys are talking to someone who used to “fight the good fight” of MAC vs. PC My only contention here was the difference in $ to me didn’t warrant a Mac purchase. If you were going to GIVE me a laptop, I’d take the MacBook, but when $ are at a premium, I decided to go a different route (bear in mind I still use my Mac Pismo G3 running OSX for most music/video/Inet needs)
What would I buy my mother? Probably a Mac. What would I personnaly buy when my budget is tight, I need to natively run Oracle 10g, SQL Server 2K/2005, Visual Studio.Net 2005,ErWin,TOAD,Citrix, seamless integration with other Microsoft products and Windows in general, then I begin to look at other options; taking ALL variables into consideration.

Also remember, that from my perspective, I’ve got a native WinTel machine that will shortly be running not only Vista and Xandros Linux, but OSX as well, and I will have done it for considerably less than what it would have cost me had I bought a MacBook.

Nick

the_real_mark

Ah, but nick what will Toshiba tell you when something (anything) goes wrong with your notebook? I bet they’ll tell you anything they can to convince you it’s your fault.

I’m not trying to nitpick (maybe a little), but I hear what you’re saying. There are even $400 semi-reliable notebooks out there for sale.

And like Joel was saying, the bundled *useable* software/hardware practically make up the price difference…

w4lna

Loading Firefox first thing is a learned PC behavior too… Safari works great.

asdfasdfasd

I think the issue you all are having with PC’s is that Dell’a and what not are paid to add the bloatware. Now if they didnt then the price might be the same as the MacBook.

I do like that Dell now allows you to say dont install any crap, and I think a lot of PC makers will do the same.

I wait for the day when Apple gains enough marketshare that the bundled software caused them to get suited like MS was for WMP.

gslusher

Vision wrote:

“So you are happy that you leave your computer wide open to the world?”

Every Mac with OS X has a built-in firewall that is enabled by default, so JoelGeek was right–he didn’t have to do any firewall manipulation. Depending upon which security site you visit, a Mac running Panther or Tiger with the firewall turned on (the default condition) will show as safe or even stealth (invisible).

MisterE2000

JoelGeek,

I just placed my order for the 17″ MacBook Pro with 4GB Ram. Yes, I currently have a PC with Vista Ultimate on it; even after being one of Microsoft’s beta testers for 15 years, I’ve had it. Reading about your out of the box experience solidifies in my mind I’m making the right choice. The sad thing is I get my Microsoft Software for free (not pirated of course)

asdfasdfasd

MisterE200

Send it the MS software to me if you are going to MAC.

As for the firewall MS firewall is no hassle either their gslusher.

the_real_mark

asdf, i hope you were being sarcastic. M$ firewalls are just as big a biatch.

Sparc

I ordered a 17″ Macbook Pro which arrives today! I’ll let you know what my experiences are too. I have moved from a PC Video Editing station to the Mac – so this is quite a large migration (from Avid Liquid, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Encore) to Final Cut Studio 2. The only application that’s on my PC which I’ve gone a purchased a Mac license for is SonicFire Pro. Other than that it’s Apple all the way…..until I hit a blocking factor some where :)

deadsenator

I have just purchased a 15″ MBP. I am retiring a 3+yr old 15″ Dell laptop (8500) that has been a nice workhorse and served me well. I have spend several months reviewing laptops and my needs. Among my needs are the ability to run OSX, performance (cpu and especially video for gaming) and small (as possible) form factor. I have used Windows for years and am a 10-yr UNIX/Linux admin. I have installed Linux/XP/Vista on many laptops (and probably thousands of pc’s for that matter). I guess I am trying to say that I have some experience (I am not trying to brag.) with operating systems and hardware. I have used and installed OSX many times as well.

I looked at many Dells and could get a nice discount through my employer. I was tempted with one of their newer models, but two things kept me from buying it: form factor and no OSX. Linux was a possibility, but I use it (Ubuntu, SLES, RH) at work and know its limitations (and possibilities). On the other hand, OSX is based on BSD which is a solid operating system in almost every way. I wanted this for a base *nix OS. The Dell could not provide this. Other manufacturers may have had the possibility (like the Toshiba mentioned), but there is risk and those that I looked at did not satisfy my performance requirements.

The MBP did match my performance requirements by having a 2.4Ghz C2D and an nVidia 8600GT. I was not happy about a lack of high resolution (1900×1200) that my 4-yr old Dell had, but I downgraded that consideration. These specs allow me to comfortably load up XP and run F.E.A.R. or CoH and many other games and have a blast when away from home.

Apple was able to pack this into a very small form factor. The MBP is as thick as the base portions of most other laptops. In my searches, I could not find a laptop that I liked in this size. Since I often carry two laptops (work and personal) and like to reduce weight whenever possible, it further pushed me towards the ~5-lb MBP.

I am sorry. I sound like a fan boy already I don’t mean to be, but I am simply stating my methodology as to why I felt the Mac was the right choice. Did I pay more? Yes. But this is countered by a back-lit keyboard, slot-loading DVD, and a whole host of reasons that the Mac is respected the world over. To be sure, the Mac _did_ come with trial ware (far less that a Dell) and the OSX install takes over 14GB! I don’t think XP or Vista take nearly that much added together.

Just my meandering thoughts.

DS

dadzcab

I’ve used computers since the early ’70’s and my MacBook rocks ! I’ve never had such a nice experience. I ended up buying 2 more for my kids.

hensed

…and the only reason why the OSX installation is so large is that the *default* includes all the languages. For XP/Vista installs, Language packs are not the default. Plus iLife apps come with HD video transition, audio loops and a bunch of other stuff. It’s another thing that they make sure that you are out-of-the-box ready for anything you want to do.